We know how lucky we are over here

[MoodySabre]

On Thursday I sailed through the Solent from Lymington going to Brighton. Skipper switches on AIS and there is a wall of hits on the plotter. OMG there's trouble ahead Don't worry I said, all I can see is a fleet of Sunsail Racing yachts. Yep there they were - a whole fleet of bankers with AIS transponders If it's like that on an April Wednesday morning then how many more yachts with transponders are out on a sunny summer Sunday? Don't get it WTF do they need transponders and detract everybody else from the real benefits i.e. dodging ships.

The Solent is nice once every 5 years but on a regular basis I would hate it. Three cheers for the East coast

 

[sailorman]

On Thursday I sailed through the Solent from Lymington going to Brighton. Skipper switches on AIS and there is a wall of hits on the plotter. OMG there's trouble ahead Don't worry I said, all I can see is a fleet of Sunsail Racing yachts. Yep there they were - a whole fleet of bankers with AIS transponders If it's like that on an April Wednesday morning then how many more yachts with transponders are out on a sunny summer Sunday? Don't get it WTF do they need transponders and detract everybody else from the real benefits i.e. dodging ships.

The Solent is nice once every 5 years but on a regular basis I would hate it. Three cheers for the East coast

they might be used as tracker devices

 

[Koeketiene]

The Solent is nice once every 5 years but on a regular basis I would hate it. Three cheers for the East coast

The Solent would be as nice as the East Coast - if not nicer - if it wasn't for the people.
IMO, it's the people that make the East Coast.

 

[oldsaltoz]

they might be used as tracker devices

+ 1.

Race committee tool.

 

[Athene V30]

WTF do they need transponders and detract everybody else from the real benefits i.e. dodging ships.

I can see a value in having a transponder for offshore / off soundings sailing as it should set off alarms in a big ship with minimal cpa on an otherise intemittent radar response. But turn it off in local waters.

The Solent is nice once every 5 years but on a regular basis I would hate it. Three cheers for the East coast

Agree, took previous boat there in '05 for Trafalgar 200, went in Karouise last season so no plans to visit for a few years other than JSASTC sailing (well thats work not fun)

 

[davidwf]

I get quite frustrated at the way some folk leave the transponders on in the marina, theres one in SYH and Woolverstone that alway triggers my alarm, problem is I am now turning it off because I am fed up of the beeping. Thats ok but I must remember to turn it on again when out at sea.

I think they are using it like an anti theft alarm.

 

[johnalison]

I have no experience of AIS, being too mean to go out and pay for one, but I feel I ought to put in a good word for the Solent, even though my heart is in the east.

We have passed through the Solent every two or three years for the last twenty or so, and always find it interesting, which is probably why it has its reputation.

Staying in the cheaper moorings, such as Lymington Town moorings or the mid-stream pontoons at Cowes, we often find people of modest means who just enjoy their sailing, as we do, and have had some good company at times. The main trouble is that the water never settles down due to the wash of passing traffic, but the scenery is undoubtably fine and I for one enjoy gawping occasionally at some of the larger yachts.

 

[Athene V30]

Staying in the cheaper moorings, such as Lymington Town moorings or the mid-stream pontoons at Cowes, we often find people of modest means who just enjoy their sailing, as we do, and have had some good company at times. The main trouble is that the water never settles down due to the wash of passing traffic, but the scenery is undoubtably fine and I for one enjoy gawping occasionally at some of the larger yachts.

Don't get me wrong, I grew up sailing in the Solent. It is a great place to be on the water just there are too many others trying to do the same thing!!

 

[emnick]

AIS

Becoming a victim of its own sucess IMHO. I also turn it off when near land. Great when off shore though.

I remember seeing an AIS display on the Round the Island Race day just a blob of triangles.

Transmitters on small boats will ruin it for all and I am told that the big boys dont look at AIS anyway as they are not overlayed onto their radar display.

Rant over

 

[Koeketiene]

Transmitters on small boats will ruin it for all and I am told that the big boys dont look at AIS anyway as they are not overlayed onto their radar display.

The kit on the big boys allows them to filter out Class B transmissions (yachts).

 

[sailorman]

Becoming a victim of its own sucess IMHO. I also turn it off when near land. Great when off shore though.

I remember seeing an AIS display on the Round the Island Race day just a blob of triangles.

Transmitters on small boats will ruin it for all and I am told that the big boys dont look at AIS anyway as they are not overlayed onto their radar display.

Rant over

Why are they needed in the Solent

 

[sailorman]

Why are they needed in the Solent

Shane Acton
This is wot he used

Shrimpy: a 18 foot Robert Tucker designed boat
that sailed around the world
One of Robert Tucker designs (Caprice Mkl, Sail Number C159) holds the record of the smallest boat to be sailed around the world. All of this is published in Shrimpy :A Record Around the World Voyage in an 18 Foot Yacht by Shane Acton. Shrimpy was published in 1981 by Patrick Stephens Ltd., Bar Hill, Cambridge, UK. The book is out-of-print and hard to get. When available the copies are pricy! A second bok Shrimpy Sails Again was also published and is also out-of-print. The following information is from the inside cover ..

"When ex-marine comando Shan Acton set off from Cambridge in his 18-foot yacht, Super Shrimpy, bought second-hand for 400 pounds, he little thought hat he would sail around the world. Yet, eight years and many hair-raising adventures later, that is exactly what he has done. During that time he has been shipwrecked, menaced by sharks, endured tempests, was thrown in jail in morocco, and even found buried treasure! But not all his amazing experiences were so melodramatic; in Panama he met a beautiful Swiss girl, Iris Derungs, who became his companion and shared the joys and problems of much of this hazardous 30,000 mile voyage.
The journey was one which even the most experienced sailors would have flatly refused to undertake. According to the law of averages, he should be dead by now. He maintains, vehemently, that this is rubbish. He knew nothing about sailing except what he had picked up from a book his sister gave him for his birthday. As he reac hed the sea on England's east coast he had to pause to work out how to put the sails up; he navigated with a plastic sextant-crude but it worked.
More than a few2 people have regared Shane as a little crazy. But they have thought none the less of him for that. Whenever he, Iris and Shrimpy have been throughout the world people flocked to see him. He put the ad venture back into live for the readers of the Cambridge Evening News, and merited a personal visit by Prince Philip when he was in Australia.


Technical details:
Name of yacht: Super Shrimp. Registered: London 358661. Design: Sloop, Caprice, Lk 1. Sail no: C159. Designer: Robert Tucker. Builder: C.E. Clark (at Cowes 1962). Reg tonnage: 2.10. length: 18 feet 4 inches. Breadth: 6 feet 2 inches. Draught: 1 foot 8 inches. Construction: Plywood. Ballast: 250 lb in each keel. Sails: 1 main, 1 jib, 1 Genoa, 1 running sail. Provisions: 120 man-days. Emergency equipment: Flares (red, orange, white) plastic 2-man dinghy and paddles.
The voyage in figures:
Length of voyage: 30,000 miles approx. Duration: 8 years. Cost of navigational gear, etc 50 pounds; Amount of previous sailing knowledge: Nil. Funds available for voyage: 30 puunds. Legs: The Atlantic (Canaries-Barbados) 40 days; the Pacific (Galapagos-Marquesas_ 45 days; the Indian Ocean (Malaysia-Ski Lanka) 10 days; the Indian Ocean (India-French Somaliland) 28 days. Pleasure gained: Incalculable.
Navigational equipment:
Compass: 1 Davies plastic, 1 exarmy prismatic (hand bearing). Radio: Vega Sebna receiver 8-band (Russian), Watch: Rolex Submariner, Sextant: Ebbco plastic. charts: Various (continually swapped with yachts heading in the opposite direction), Books and tables: Nautical Almanic (new one every 2nd year) Borton's tables. Little Ship Celestrial Navigation, Rantzen. Highly recommended. Reed's Almanac (1972 and 1980 only) Extras: 2 pencils, 1 parallel ruler. And that's all!

 

[nigelm]

Re Shrimpy , i have a copy of that very enjoyable & inspiring book ,it does prove that you dont need all the electronic gizmo's to go off and sail around the world ,i think everyone these days has become to reliant on the "toys".

a book about the little Caprice was what caught my attention in the first place as my father had one 46yrs ago and it was our first cruiser , no electrics at all just oil lamps and a battery powered small transistor radio , we
didnt go as far as Mr Acton just up/down the river Crouch but what a great introduction to sailing for me .

when we did venture further afield a few years later (1979) and had a Listang 24
that had a 12 volt system of interior lights , a masthead tri-colour and a echosounder !! , still got to Ostend/Calais and back in one peice though .

so as far as AIS goes , nah dont think i'll bother

 

[johnalison]

.

when we did venture further afield a few years later (1979) and had a Listang 24
that had a 12 volt system of interior lights , a masthead tri-colour and a echosounder !! , still got to Ostend/Calais and back in one peice though .

We were much posher than that in 1980 when we went to Ostend in our Mystere - we had RDF.